Atmospheric temperature and water vapor profiles from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer and the Cross‐track Infrared Sounder with acceptable qualities under clear condition and above ...clouds are derived using the Dual‐Regression algorithm based on the Principle Component‐based Radiative Transfer Model. The application of the derived atmospheric retrievals with high temporal and spatial resolutions in a regional weather model is studied for two hurricane cases by assimilating the retrievals in an hourly update cycle. Improvements on hurricane forecast are obtained by assimilating satellite retrievals as compared to both conventional operational data and radiance assimilation. Position of the predicted hurricane center, which is especially critical for landfall position, is corrected with a maximum improvement of 45 km compared to conventional assimilation. Predictions of heavy precipitation produced by hurricanes are improved with smaller bias and standard deviation. Precipitation scores used for the validation of predictions also show great improvements in heavy precipitation forecast against conventional data and radiance assimilation. Hurricane structure representation is substantially improved. Specifically, more symmetric structures, stronger warm cores, deeper convections, and more accurate winds lead to the improvements in precipitation forecasts. Potential applications of such approaches can be applied to assimilating the retrieved information from the geostationary satellite instruments by adding higher temporal and horizontal resolutions to the polar satellite hyperspectral sounding data.
Key Points
New developed atmospheric retrieval algorithms with cloud detection technique can produce atmospheric profiles with good qualities
Preliminary results show that satellite retrievals can improve the forecast of hurricanes structure, intensity, track, and associated precipitation through data assimilation
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected dentists globally, both financially and mentally. This study aimed to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practices of dentists in Caribbean ...countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A non-probability sample was obtained from dentists in more than ten different Caribbean countries. They were invited to complete a self-reported questionnaire, which was conducted from December 2020 to March 2021. Ethics approval was sought and an exemption was received from the UWI ethics committee. Results: One hundred and fifty-two dentists responded. More than one-third (38.8%) were in the >35–45 age group, and 58.6% were females. Most (84.9%) were general dentists and 75% were stressed by the COVID-19 situation with 80.9% being affected financially. The majority, 94.7%, believed that the highest risk of transmission of COVID-19 was via aerosol-generating procedures and 87.5% were worried about contracting it clinically. The majority (69.1%) were willing to receive the vaccine, the main reason reported for vaccine hesitancy was due to the possible side effects (35.3%). Most (75%) consumed alcohol. When the locus of control was determined, 54.6% felt they were in control of protecting themselves while 52% felt that external factors controlled their lives. Conclusions: The findings suggest that most dentists in the Caribbean were knowledgeable about COVID-19 and followed current guidelines in their practice and were willing to receive the vaccine.
Abstract The objectives of this study were to examine charge data and long-term outcomes of two approaches for anterior lumbar interbody fusion: a mini-open lateral approach (extreme lateral ...interbody fusion, XLIF) and an open anterior approach (anterior lumbar interbody fusion, ALIF) through retrospective chart review. A total of 202 patients underwent surgery: 87 with ALIF (Open) and 115 with XLIF (Mini-open) procedures, all with transpedicular fixation. Complications occurred in 16.7% of Open, and 8.2% of Mini-open, procedures ( p = 0.041). The mean charges ($US) for one-level Mini-open and Open procedures were $91,995 and $102,146, and for two-level procedures were $124,540 and $144,183, respectively. All differences were statistically significant ( p < 0.05). This represents a 10% cost-savings, based on charges, for one-level and 13.6% for two-level Mini-open compared to Open procedures. Functional outcomes improved significantly at two years for both cohorts, although the difference between groups was not statistically significant. In conclusion, the Mini-open approach, compared to the Open, resulted in clinical as well as cost benefits with similar long-term outcomes.
We propose a self-supervised method for relative pose estimation. Unlike existing self-supervised methods, we do not train a dense depth estimation network in conjunction with our pose network and ...hence avoid the complexity and ambiguity of this much harder problem. Instead, we use a very simple geometric model in which we assume the local road scene is planar. By estimating a 9D ground-relative pose, we are able to perform cross-projection between images via the ground plane using only a homography to compute a self-supervised appearance loss between overlapping images. We use a geometric matching architecture that can handle arbitrary pose pairs and use a pretrained feature extractor to compute a perceptual appearance loss. Our approach is competitive with more complex visual odometry methods that estimate dense depth maps. Code: github.com/brucemuller/homographyVO
Every spring, ranchers in the drought‐prone U.S. Great Plains face the same difficult challenge—trying to estimate how much forage will be available for livestock to graze during the upcoming summer ...grazing season. To reduce this uncertainty in predicting forage availability, we developed an innovative new grassland productivity forecast system, named Grass‐Cast, to provide science‐informed estimates of growing season aboveground net primary production (ANPP). Grass‐Cast uses over 30 yr of historical data including weather and the satellite‐derived normalized vegetation difference index (NDVI)—combined with ecosystem modeling and seasonal precipitation forecasts—to predict if rangelands in individual counties are likely to produce below‐normal, near‐normal, or above‐normal amounts of grass biomass (lbs/ac). Grass‐Cast also provides a view of rangeland productivity in the broader region, to assist in larger‐scale decision‐making—such as where forage resources for grazing might be more plentiful if a rancher’s own region is at risk of drought. Grass‐Cast is updated approximately every two weeks from April through July. Each Grass‐Cast forecast provides three scenarios of ANPP for the upcoming growing season based on different precipitation outlooks. Near real‐time 8‐d NDVI can be used to supplement Grass‐Cast in predicting cumulative growing season NDVI and ANPP starting in mid‐April for the Southern Great Plains and mid‐May to early June for the Central and Northern Great Plains. Here, we present the scientific basis and methods for Grass‐Cast along with the county‐level production forecasts from 2017 and 2018 for ten states in the U.S. Great Plains. The correlation between early growing season forecasts and the end‐of‐growing season ANPP estimate is >50% by late May or early June. In a retrospective evaluation, we compared Grass‐Cast end‐of‐growing season ANPP results to an independent dataset and found that the two agreed 69% of the time over a 20‐yr period. Although some predictive tools exist for forecasting upcoming growing season conditions, none predict actual productivity for the entire Great Plains. The Grass‐Cast system could be adapted to predict grassland ANPP outside of the Great Plains or to predict perennial biofuel grass production.
Rabex-5 is an exchange factor for Rab5, a master regulator of endosomal trafficking. Rabex-5 binds monoubiquitin, undergoes covalent ubiquitination and contains an intrinsic ubiquitin ligase ...activity, all of which require an N-terminal A20 zinc finger followed immediately by a helix. The structure of the N-terminal portion of Rabex-5 bound to ubiquitin at 2.5-A resolution shows that Rabex-5-ubiquitin interactions occur at two sites. The first site is a new type of ubiquitin-binding domain, an inverted ubiquitin-interacting motif, which binds with approximately 29-microM affinity to the canonical Ile44 hydrophobic patch on ubiquitin. The second is a diaromatic patch on the A20 zinc finger, which binds with approximately 22-microM affinity to a polar region centered on Asp58 of ubiquitin. The A20 zinc-finger diaromatic patch mediates ubiquitin-ligase activity by directly recruiting a ubiquitin-loaded ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Tobacco smoking is highly prevalent in persons with psychosis and is the leading cause of preventable mortality in this population. Less is known about tobacco smoking in persons with first episode ...psychosis (FEP) and there have been no estimates about the prevalence of nicotine vaping in FEP. This study reports rates of tobacco smoking and nicotine vaping in young people with FEP enrolled in Coordinated Specialty Care programs in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Using data collected from 2021 to 2023, we examined lifetime and recent smoking and vaping and compared smokers and vapers to nonusers on symptoms, functioning, and substance use. The sample included 445 participants aged 13–35 with recent psychosis onset. Assessments were collected by program staff. Overall, 28 % of participants engaged in either smoking or vaping within 30 days of the admission assessment. Smokers and vapers were disproportionately male, cannabis users, and had lower negative symptom severity than non-smokers. Vapers had higher role and social functioning. Both smoking and vaping were related to a longer time from psychosis onset to program enrollment. We compare these findings to previous studies and suggest steps for addressing smoking and vaping in this vulnerable population.
The aim in this paper is to show how to use the 2.5D facial surface normals (needle-maps) recovered using shape-from-shading (SFS) to perform gender classification. We use principal geodesic analysis ...(PGA) to model the distribution of facial surface normals which reside on a Remannian manifold. We incorporate PGA into shape-from-shading, and develop a principal geodesic shape-from-shading (PGSFS) method. This method guarantees that the recovered needle-maps exhibit realistic facial shape by satisfying a statistical model. Moreover, because the recovered facial needle-maps satisfy the data-closeness constraint as a hard constraint, they not only encode facial shape but also implicitly encode image intensity. Experiments explore the gender classification performance using the recovered facial needle-maps on two databases (Notre Dame and FERET), and compare the results with those obtained using intensity images. The results demonstrate the feasibility of gender classification using the recovered facial shape information.
To understand radiologists' preference and variability in phrases for expressing diagnostic certainty in radiology reports.
This institutional review board-approved study was part of a quality ...improvement initiative to improve the quality of radiology reports at a tertiary academic hospital. Sixteen phrases commonly used in radiology reports to convey diagnostic certainty were extracted from prior publications. The degree of diagnostic certainty was divided into six arbitrary categories by an expert panel. We used an anonymous online survey to query 239 radiologists at our institution regarding their preferred phrase for each category. We evaluated the distribution of preferred phrases, performed cluster analysis to find groups of phrases used to describe specific diagnostic certainty categories, and calculated Krippendorff's α to evaluate how reliably radiologists use various phrases to express diagnostic certainty.
In all, 59.4% (142 of 239) of radiologists completed the survey. The most commonly preferred phrases were "consistent with" (45.1%; 64 of 142) for 100% confident, "highly suggestive of" (46.5%; 66 of 142) for very high likelihood, "most likely" (31.0%; 44 of 142) for high likelihood, "may represent" (50.7%; 72 of 142) for intermediate likelihood, "unlikely" (47.2%; 67 of 142) for low likelihood, and "very unlikely" (40.1%; 57 of 142) for very low likelihood. Cluster analysis identified six groups of phrases used to indicate a similar level of diagnostic certainty; however, Krippendorff's α was 0.217, indicating radiologists do not consistently use the same phrases for similar degrees of confidence.
Wide variability persists among radiologists' preferences for phrases used to convey diagnostic certainty. Interventions to improve consistency of use of these phrases may help reduce ambiguity and improve quality of radiology reports.
PDF
